Impact of Exercise Intervention Combined with Optimal Mediterranean Diet Adherence during Pregnancy on Postpartum Body Composition: A Quasi-Experimental Study—The GESTAFIT Project De la Flor Alemany, Marta Acosta Manzano, Pedro Hidalgo Migueles, Jairo Henriksson, Pontus Löf, Marie Aparicio García-Molina, Virginia Nutrition Lifestyle behaviors Dietary patterns This study aimed to investigate whether the effects of an exercise program during pregnancy on postpartum body composition are moderated by following a healthy dietary pattern (i.e., Mediterranean diet (MD)). Eighty-three pregnant women (control n = 40, exercise n = 43) were included in the present quasi-experimental study. The exercise intervention consisted of a 60 min, 3 day/week throughout pregnancy from gestational week 17, supervised concurrent (aerobic + resistance) exercise program. A food frequency questionnaire and the MD Score (min–max: 0–50) were employed to assess dietary habits and the MD adherence during pregnancy, respectively. Postpartum body composition was measured with dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, 6 weeks postpartum. The body mass index and the gynecoid fat mass at postpartum were lower in the exercise compared to the control group (p = 0.018 and p = 0.047, respectively). There was an interaction showing that the MD adherence during pregnancy positively moderated the effects of the exercise intervention on postpartum lean mass (p = 0.024), fat mass percentage (p = 0.092), android fat mass (p = 0.076), and android-to-gynecoid fat mass (p = 0.019). The Johnson–Neyman technique revealed that the effects of exercise were enhanced at a MD score of ~31 for lean mass, ~25 for fat mass, ~23 for android fat mass and ~29 for android-to-gynecoid fat mass. Our results suggest that a concurrent-exercise training plus an optimal MD adherence during pregnancy might be a useful strategy to promote a healthier body composition at the postpartum period. 2024-05-16T08:40:15Z 2024-05-16T08:40:15Z 2023-10-18 journal article Flor-Alemany, M.; Acosta-Manzano, P.; Migueles, J.H.; Henriksson, P.; Löf, M.; Aparicio, V.A. Impact of Exercise Intervention Combined with Optimal Mediterranean Diet Adherence during Pregnancy on Postpartum Body Composition: A Quasi- Experimental Study—The GESTAFIT Project. Nutrients 2023, 15, 4413. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu15204413 https://hdl.handle.net/10481/91854 10.3390/nu15204413 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ open access Atribución 4.0 Internacional MDPI